by Joanne Fluke
Norman glanced at elevated section of the dining room. Each booth had a curtain that could be drawn for privacy, but only one group of diners had taken advantage of that feature this evening. “I wonder who’s dining in seclusion,” he mused.
“I don’t know, but it’s some kind of special occasion.”
“How do you know that?”
“I saw the waitress carry in a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket. I tried to get a look at the people inside, but she was really careful about closing the curtain behind her.”
“Did the waitress bring champagne flutes?” Norman asked.
“Yes. I’m almost sure there were only two.”
“It’s a couple then. I wonder who they are.”
“Do you want to walk past there on our way out?” Hannah asked him.
“Of course I do, but wouldn’t it be obvious that we’re snooping?”
“Not really. Janice Cox and her parents are up there in the end booth and they don’t have their curtains drawn. We could stop and say hello to them and then walk past the private booth on our way out.”
“You’re devious, Hannah.”
“I know. I learned from the best.”
“Your mother?”
“That’s right. So do you want to walk past?”
“I guess we could. It’s a real invasion of privacy though.”
“I know it is.”
Hannah looked at Norman and Norman looked at Hannah. They locked eyes for several seconds and then both of them laughed.
“Let’s do it,” Hannah said.
“I’m with you,” Norman agreed. “But it can’t possibly be anyone from Lake Eden.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because people from Lake Eden know better. They realize that if they pull the privacy curtain, everybody out here is going to think something’s going on. And then people are going to walk past and try to figure out who’s behind the curtain.”
“But what can they do if they really want privacy?”
“They can drive to a restaurant in The Cities where nobody knows them.”
Hannah laughed. Norman was right. If someone from Lake Eden wanted privacy, they’d have to drive to Minneapolis.
As they climbed the steps to the elevated booths, Hannah kept her eyes on the one with the drawn curtain. It didn’t extend quite to the floor and she could see two pairs of shoes. One pair belonged to a man wearing fawn-colored suede boots with beadwork on the sides. The boots were accompanied by two open-toed sandals crafted of shiny red leather straps and impressively high, implausibly thin heels.
“I wonder which man is responsible for her shoes,” Hannah said in an undertone as they began to walk slowly toward Janice’s booth.
“What shoes?”
“The red sandals behind the curtain. A woman doesn’t wear impractical shoes like that unless she’s trying to attract a man.”
“Really?”
Hannah noticed that Norman was looking down at her feet and she could have kicked herself for her comment, especially since she was wearing her favorite but old moose-hide boots. “Of course that only applies if the man drops her off at the door. You’d never be able to walk to the parking lot in sandals.”
“Right,” Norman said and he looked much more cheerful.
“Hi, Janice,” Hannah greeted Lake Eden’s preschool teacher and then she turned to her parents. “Hi, Eleanor…Otis. How are those sled dogs coming along?”
“Just great, Hannah.” Eleanor launched into her favorite subject. “We’ve got a new lead dog this year and she’s breaking in just fine. Otis decided that he should retire Yukon. He’s got a touch of arthritis and he’s been limping a little.”
“But doesn’t Yukon miss it?” Hannah asked, wondering how the Siberian Husky with one brown eye and one blue eye was faring.
“He doesn’t seem to mind at all. As a matter of fact, I think the cold was making his arthritis worse. He hardly limps at all now that he’s a house dog.”
“The least we could do,” Otis said, and then he stopped speaking. He was a man of few words.
“So he sleeps on the bed with us now,” Eleanor went on, “and he’s a regular blanket hog. He watches the soaps with me, too.”
“That sounds like a match made in heaven,” Norman commented, which caused Otis to laugh.
Hannah loved to watch Otis laugh. He chortled a little, deep in his throat, and slapped his knee three times. That meant it was a good joke. If something really tickled his funny bone, he slapped his knees with both hands three times. That meant he thought it was hilarious. Norman’s comment was a two-knee slapper.
Just then the waitress arrived with their entrees and Hannah and Norman said their goodbyes. Hannah noticed that Janice was having Sally’s low-cal special, broiled red snapper with broccoli and three small red potatoes, and she figured that a diet must be in the works. She’d ask a couple of careful questions the next time she saw her and if Janice was trying to lose weight, she wouldn’t tempt her by bringing her cookies at Kiddie Korner.
“Are you going to drop your purse when we get to the curtained booth?” Norman asked her as they moved away from Janice and her parents.
“No! That’s what Mother always does.”
“Does it work?”
“Well…” Hannah considered it for a moment. “Yes.”
“Then why not do it?”
Hannah looked down at the purse her mother and her sisters had called a saddlebag. It was huge and it held all the essentials she needed in case of a national disaster and then some. “Mother has a much smaller purse,” she told him. “It’ll take us forever to pick up the contents from this one.”
“And your point is?” Norman asked, grinning at her.
“Never mind.” As they approached the curtained booth, Hannah slipped the strap from her shoulder. “Oops!” she said as her purse fell to the carpet and a myriad of things, some of them useful, some of them not, fell out.
“I’ll help you pick it up,” Norman said, bending down and craning his neck to the side so that he could see under the curtain.
“Thanks,” Hannah answered, also dropping to her knees for a better view. As she shoveled paraphernalia back into her purse, she saw that the red sandals had moved. They were now very close to the suede boots with the beadwork on the sides, and they were not toe to toe any longer. That meant the woman had slid around the horseshoe-shaped booth and was now as close as close could be to her male companion.
“Hurry up!” Norman whispered, dumping handfuls of items into Hannah’s purse.
“Why?” Hannah whispered back.
“Mother.”
Hannah strained to hear. Norman’s whisper was almost inaudible. “Did you say mother?” she asked, in a voice that matched his in volume.
“Yes. I’ll tell you everything when we get outside.”
Hannah’s curiosity almost killed her as they exited the restaurant, walked through the bar, retrieved their coats from the cloakroom, traversed the lobby, and went out the front entrance. Once she’d finished shivering from the blast of crisp, cold air that assaulted them, Hannah repeated her question. “Did you say mother? As in my mother?”
“No. I said mother as in my mother. My mother was in that booth.”
“But…how could you tell from just seeing her shoes?”
“I couldn’t tell from her shoes. She never wears shoes like that. I could tell by the scar on her left ankle.”
Hannah believed him. She was almost certain she could identify Delores by simply seeing her feet. But Norman could be wrong. “Are you sure it wasn’t another woman with a scar on her left ankle.”
“I’m sure. I heard her say Oh, no! in a very low voice when you dropped your purse. And after that, neither one of them made another sound. I think she must have gestured for him to be quiet. She probably thought it was Delores outside the booth since your mother pulls the same trick.”
“Well…maybe.” Hannah took a deep breath of the braci
ng air. “But if it was Carrie, who was the man with her? I didn’t even know she was dating.”
“Neither did I, but that explains why she canceled all those dinners with me.”
“And why she told Mother she couldn’t go to class with her. But who was the man? Do you have any idea?”
“Not a clue. I didn’t recognize the boots. Did you?”
“No. But I think that the fact she was wearing those shoes shoots Mike’s theory all to smithereens.”
“What theory?”
Norman turned to look at her and almost tripped over a clump of snow. This was obviously unsettling to him and Hannah took his arm before answering. “Mike thought your mother was shoplifting.”
“What?!”
“It wasn’t an entirely crazy assumption. Mike’s been helping with security at the Tri-County Mall and he’s run into Carrie a couple of times. It’s always when the mall is closing and she’s loading packages into the trunk of her car. He told me she looks really guilty when she sees him, and that made him suspect that she could be shoplifting.”
Norman gave a big sigh and his breath came out in a white cloud against the dark sky. “Let me get this straight. Mike thinks she looks guilty so he assumes she’s shoplifting?”
“Yes. Of course Mike hasn’t told anybody about it…except me. And I know he’ll be really happy when we tell him he’s wrong.” Hannah stopped and cleared her throat. She had to be careful how she worded her next question. Norman might not be happy that his mother had a boyfriend. “I think your mother’s doing all that shopping because she’s trying to look good for someone new in her life. What do you think?”
“I think you’re right. And that was well done, Hannah. You were very careful not to use the word boyfriend, or new man.”
“That’s because I didn’t know how you’d feel about it.”
Norman slipped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to him. “I’m fine with it. Mother’s been alone too long and if she’s found some man to make her happy, more power to both of them. But I’m still mad about Mike. I can’t believe he thought my mother was a shoplifter!”
“Well, he never thought she was doing it on purpose. He was concerned because kleptomania is a disease and he thought she might not be able to help herself. He wanted to help her, but he wasn’t quite sure what to do.”
“He should have come to me.”
“I know, but he did the next best thing. He came to me instead.”
Norman was quiet for a moment. “Okay. That’s reasonable. Mike probably thought I’d fly off the handle. But we haven’t addressed the real problem.”
They arrived at the car and Norman opened the passenger door for Hannah. She climbed in, he shut it, and he walked around the car to get into the driver’s seat. He started the engine immediately so that the car would warm up, and then he turned to her again.
“We have to find out who was in that booth with her. If he’s a nice guy, I’m all for it. But I want to make sure he’s not after her money.”
Hannah understood completely. She and her sisters had been worried about the same thing when Delores had started getting serious about Winthrop. “I can ask Sally to ask her waitresses.”
“I’d really appreciate it. Dad left her with quite a bundle and I don’t want to see somebody try to take advantage of her.”
“Of course you don’t. But I didn’t know your mother was that well-off.”
“Neither did I until after the funeral. Dad never made a lot of money from the dental clinic, but he took out multiple life insurance policies right after I was born. Mother didn’t know about them and neither did I until Doug Greerson called and said that Dad had a safe deposit box. When we opened it, we found a list of the policies. Dad made all the payments, even when he was sick. He was looking out for Mother right up until the end.”
“Well, it’s our turn now,” Hannah told him, reaching out to take his hand. “We’re going to find out who your mother’s dating and make sure he’s good enough for her.”
TRIPLE THREAT CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE PIE
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
One 9-inch chocolate cookie crumb crust***
½ cup white (granulated) sugar
8-ounce package softened cream cheese
1/3 cup mayonnaise (regular mayo, NOT Miracle Whip or sandwich spread)
2 eggs
1 cup white chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semi-sweet (regular) chocolate chips
Hannah’s 1st Note: You can make this by hand, but it’s a lot easier with an electric mixer!
Beat the sugar with the softened cream cheese until it’s thoroughly blended. Add the mayonnaise and the eggs. Beat well.
Melt the white chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl on HIGH for 40 seconds. Stir them to see if they’re melted. (Don’t be fooled—chips may retain their shape even when they’re melted.) If they’re not melted, microwave in 15-second intervals, stirring after each attempt, until you can stir them smooth. Set the melted chips on the counter to cool for a moment or two.
When you can comfortably cup your hands around the bowl holding the melted chips, mix them gradually into the batter. Then add the vanilla and mix well.
Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in the semi-sweet chocolate chips by hand.
Spoon the pie batter into the cookie crust and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
Bake the pie at 350 degrees F. for 30 to 35 minutes.
Cool the pie on a wire rack and then refrigerate. Take your pie out of the refrigerator 20 minutes before serving. Serve with sweetened whipped cream on top.
Hannah’s 2nd Note: This pie is so deliciously rich, you have to serve it with strong coffee. I usually have a second pot all ready to go when the first one runs out.
Chapter Fourteen
Their drive through the Lake Eden Inn parking lot to attempt to identify cars turned out to be an exercise in futility. There were simply too many cars they didn’t recognize. Carrie’s car was not present. It was obvious that she’d ridden out to the Lake Eden Inn with her dinner companion. Finally, after the third round trip, Hannah decided to call off the search.
“Forget it, Norman. This isn’t doing any good. Unless you want to sit here and burn gas until your mother comes out, let’s go pick up the check from Larry. Once we’ve got that, we can take a detour past your mother’s house to see if she’s home yet.”
Norman looked surprised. “You want to go in and ask who was in the booth with her?”
“Of course not. That would just put her on the defensive and she probably wouldn’t tell me anyway. I want to see if there’s a car parked in front of her house. If there is, all we have to do is copy down the license number and ask Mike to run it for us.”
“Good thinking.” Norman pulled out of the parking lot and headed for the highway. They wound their way down what looked like a huge, never-ending tunnel flanked by snow banks. It was a little strange seeing snow banks as high as the top of the car on both sides, and it was evident from the height of the snow that Sally’s husband, Dick, had used his mini-snowplow to clear the road multiple times this winter so that the guests could drive in.
Once they reached the highway, Norman increased his speed and Hannah leaned back to enjoy the ride. The radio was tuned to a classic jazz station, the interior of the car was warm, and the passenger seat was extremely comfortable. The phrase, All’s right with the world, floated through Hannah’s mind. Things were always right when she was with Norman. There were times, like right now, when she really couldn’t understand her reluctance to marry him and be comfortable like this for the rest of her life. She loved him, she enjoyed being with him, and she’d love to live in the house they’d designed together. Norman would be a great husband, but just when she was about to say yes, thoughts of Mike got in the way. Perhaps she needed a shrink. But going to a psychotherapist would take time and time wa
s one thing she didn’t have. There were no spare fifty-minute hours during the Christmas season.
“Why so quiet?” Norman asked, taking her out of the dilemma she didn’t seem to be able to solve anyway.
“I was thinking about time,” Hannah said, telling him what she termed a partial truth.
“It must be pretty hectic for you this time of year with Christmas so close. Is there any way I can help you?”
“You’re already helping me. You treated me to a wonderful dinner and now you’re taking me to the Crazy Elf to pick up the check I failed to ask for this afternoon.”
“I could do more. If you have any last-minute shopping to do, just let me know. I could run out to the mall for you. There’s only ten shopping days left until Christmas.”
“I know. Lisa reminded me today, but shopping for Christmas is the one thing I finished. I took Mother’s advice and shopped early. Now all I have to do is remember where I put the presents I bought.”
“And wrap them,” Norman reminded her.
“Yes, there’s that. And I hate wrapping presents. I’m really no good at it.”
“I’m not a bad wrapper. I could help you wrap your presents. It would be more fun with the two of us.”
“You’re right. You could put your finger on the knot in my ribbon when I tie a bow.”
Norman glanced over at her and smiled. “That’s always been my goal in life,” he said. “I love you, Hannah. I want to make your life easier.”
“You do,” Hannah said, and then she reached out to place her hand on his arm as he drove.
The Crazy Elf parking lot was chained shut and Norman parked on the street. As they got out of the car and headed for the entrance, the wind picked up and snow skittered across the sidewalk in little eddies and flurries. Hannah thought about dust devils and their bigger cousins, sand devils. If there were dust devils and sand devils, could there be snow devils? She’d have to look it up.